Our garden bed is exploding with fresh greens and I couldn’t be happier! Of course, that does mean that I have to get creative with some of our upcoming meals so we don’t get too tired of eating greens, greens, and nothing but greens! (<– Into the Woods reference, anyone?)

One of my favorite dishes to pack veggies into is fried rice, so I figured some chopped greens would go well in that also. To bad we didn’t have a single grain of rice in the house that wasn’t arborio!

So, improvisation time! I went with my next favorite thing: quinoa. This fried quinoa recipe has a lot of ingredients, but they’re simple staples that I’m sure you either have on hand already, or can find easily at any market.

I’ve tried my best to approximate seasoning amounts, but as always, the best measure is to taste and adjust to your particular palate.

Soak quinoa for about 10 minutes, or rinse well under running water. Drain thoroughly.
In a heavy pot on med-high flame, heat oil or butter till hot and add drained quinoa.
Toast for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in broth, clamp on the lid, and turn heat down to med-low.
Simmer for 20 minutes. (Prep rest of ingredients in the meantime!)
Remove from heat. Let sit another 10 minutes to finish steam cooking.

For the rest of the dish

In a large skillet over med-high flame, heat oil till it shimmers.
Add garlic, shallot, and carrot. Cook, stirring well, for about 4 minutes till the shallot starts to turn translucent.
Add in corn, cook for another 4-5 minutes, till corn starts to brown just a little bit.
When ready, push corn mixture to edges of pan and pour the eggs in the middle, stirring to scramble thoroughly.
Season with a few dashes of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. (About 1 tsp each.)
Remove egg and corn mixture from the pan to a bowl or plate.
Return pan to heat and toss in the chard. Stir fry the chard till just about tender, 2-4 minutes depending on the size and type.
Add the cooked quinoa to the chard and season again.
To the quinoa and chard, toss back in the egg and corn mixture.
Season well with black pepper, adding extra soy and Worcestershire sauce as desired.
Serve hot topped with spicy Sriracha or your favorite hot sauce!

Want it vegan? Remove the eggs and swap the Worcestershire sauce for mushroom sauce. (or omit it all together)

Want some meat? In a separate pan, brown a bit of ground meat of your choice and toss it in at the end.

Want more veggies? Go for it! I would have added some sliced snap peas if I’d had any on hand!

Not only did this make the house smell heavenly, but it was delicious too! I had to hold myself back from eating half the pan before plating.

I paired it with a steamed garlic studded artichoke and a bit of Vegenaise for dipping. This was definitely a weird combo, but that’s how we roll in this household!